Today football body UEFA announced its new ticketing app leverages blockchain. The purpose is to prevent ticket replication and duplication.
For the upcoming UEFA Super Cup match between Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid in Estonia, all the tickets will be distributed via mobile apps.
To get into the football grounds, fans have to use their phone app and have Bluetooth enabled. There’s a demo video that warns ticket holders to ensure their phones are adequately charged! UEFA told Ledger Insights, that as shown in this video, that the QR code is only unveiled at the grounds entrance, making it harder to copy.
This isn’t the first time the organization is using the app. The system was first used for half of the tickets at the 2018 UEFA Europa League final between Atlético and Marseille in Lyon. After that, there were further iterations and tests.
UEFA plans to develop the system further and use it at future events.
The football body said they’ve tested different blockchain protocols, and they have not yet decided which one to use.
With a small amount of digging, Ledger Insights found an April announcement from Secutix that they’d landed a ticketing deal with UEFA. However, this doesn’t cover all of UEFA’s matches and Secutix were unavailable for comment. But Secutix offers a rather similar blockchain ticketing solution. In their solution there are two options for access control.
With the first route, the football grounds use blockchain-enabled readers to check the ticket on the blockchain. The second option is the user’s app generates the barcode at the gate. The latter sounds rather similar to the solution UEFA plans to use this week. In other news, Secutix CTO Vincent Larchet is no longer with the company.
